Nicole Kidman says her award-winning London stage performance as a scientist was a tribute to her late father.

Kidman was awarded the best-actress prize at London's Evening Standard Theater Awards Sunday for playing Rosalind Franklin, one of the team who discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, in "Photograph 51.'' Franklin's role in the discovery went largely unrecorded for decades.

Kidman said she tackled the role"`for my father, who was a scientist - he has been orbiting around this whole thing - and also for Rosalind, who was not recognized in her lifetime.''

Kidman's father, psychologist Antony Kidman, died last year aged 75.

James McAvoy was named best actor for "The Ruling Class,'' and Imelda Staunton won the prize for best performance in a musical for her powerhouse turn in "Gypsy.''